I am a huge Seiko fan, but I dont understand Seiko's strategy. And looking at the baselworld 2018 I still dont understand them.
The grand seiko high beats are all very classically styled. Sure they do the classical style very well but why no different high beat designs? A high quality more sports like watch or more fashionable... they dont make (except divers).
They do it for the sarb line, and some extend brights/presage and of course their lower lines but not for their top model line imho.
As far as divers go, they do loads of them, and also re enactments/rereleases of series and models, even in the high quality category (marine master/prospex). This is something Seiko does very well, making very respectable models that are well talked about in every price range.
But if you look at seiko's history, there is another catagory of watch seiko used to be king, and that is chronographs.
Why dont they make high class chronographs now that are decently styled. They make/made one or two ananta's with very classic japanese styling (sometimes roman numerals..... on a chrono....), so very boring, but hardly anything modern styled, sporty styled or as re-enactment/rerelease of their classic '70's chronos, where, for instance, they competed to launch the first automatic chrono, with, get this, Heuer, Breitling, Dubois-Depraz and Zenith. That was the creme de la creme of swiss watchmaking when it came to chrono's, selling them for tenfold the price Seiko did
Not only that, Seiko had an affordable movement that was also equipped with a column wheel and vertical clutch, meaning it was horologically speaking a more refined caliber than some of their very expensive, well regarded swiss counterparts. And seiko had the first automatic chrono in space.
So Seiko played a huge role in the automatic chronograph development both on a technical aspect and a historical aspect.
And they had a massive lineup of both classical and radical styled chronos:
Seiko Pogue:
Seiko kakume:
Seiko Jumbo:
And that list goes on and on (ufo, tokai, panda, bullhead etc).
Why not draw inspiration from that?
Rolex, Tag, Breitling etc all sell loads of very high end chrono's, fetching top dollar, often double the money of their regular models, advertising how much heritage is in their models and past, but seiko's automatic chrono's are scarse and dull designed, having no visible lineage to seiko's rich history.
And even now they do have 2 killer chrono movements:
The 6s37, which TAG Heuer wanted to license for europe (as calibre 1887) but when some watch geeks found out it was a seiko design it obviously resulted in a huge riot in the watch world, but it shows the quality of the movement if TAG wants it.
And above that movement, seiko even has a higher placed automatic chrono, the 8r28 (and 8R48, probaby a variant).
Why not make a few series with those movements, inspired by the rich past when seiko made chrono's with daring and fashionable design, crazy cases/shapes etc. Make someting that rivals a daytona, monaco, el primero etc. At a fraction of the price.
ITs a missed oppertunity.
The only Seiko chrono from the last few years that I consider a succes designwise is the Seiko SDGZ013
A hommage/reenactment of the 6138-8020 (seiko Panda) with 8R48 (still not a daring design, the classic panda propbably the most classic sports design of that era....)
Something inside me says I should buy it, if I see it. Because its still crazy: good looking automatic chrono, killer (obviously in house) movement (8R48) and 500pcs limited edition....
Looking at those specs, but put rolex or tag or breitling on it (if they can match the quality of the movement) in such a limited edition, what kind of a price would that fetch...... (5 figures surely)
Sorry that I talk about what not to expect at Baselworld.....
What I find very interesting at the coming basilworld: Zenith Defy Zero G (gravity oriented tourbillion, well sort of, and now miniturized to be wearable on the wrist):
https://www.ablogtowatch.com/zenith-defy-zero-g-watch/
Movement orgasm.
let down: 100k+
